


Welcome Home

by fandomtrashpanda



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: @Dreamworks hire me as a writer, Because nothing forces dumb boys to confront their feelings like genuine near-death experiences., Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Gay Keith (Voltron), Getting Together, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Lance is smarter and more observant than everyone gives him credit for I have REceIPts, Lance standing up for himself and demanding the respect he deserves 2k18, M/M, Post S4, Tagging literally everyone who makes an appearance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-30
Updated: 2017-12-30
Packaged: 2019-02-23 20:14:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13197720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandomtrashpanda/pseuds/fandomtrashpanda
Summary: In the aftermath of the battle on Naxcela, multiple leaders argue over Lotor's fate while Lance confronts Keith.Alternate title: how i want s5ep1 to go please @Dreamworks give me this.





	Welcome Home

**Author's Note:**

> So I prefer the writing style of "show, don't tell" which is what I go for in a story like this: I want you to read this and have it paint a mental picture like you're actually watching an episode.

The footfalls on the floors were heavy due to the sheer number of individuals walking in sync. In the center of the ring made by Blade members and rebels with their guns raised, Lotor walked with his head held high and a smirk on his lips, in spite of the heavy shackles that had been snapped around his arms as soon as he had climbed out of his ship.  


“I don’t like this, Kolivan,” Keith whispered, glancing at Lotor over his shoulder and scowling when he made eye contact with the banished prince. “We should have chosen a different meeting location, one of the planets - bringing him onto the castle is a bad idea.”  


“This wasn’t my decision, Keith,” Kolivan told him, his voice just as quiet and conspiratory, “I was instructed to do so by Shiro.”  


Keith frowned and lowered his gaze, going quiet as they entered the meeting room. His eyes grew wide with fear and worry when he saw Matt speaking quietly with the other paladins; they all snapped their attention to the door as soon as it opened, and it hadn’t even been a second before Pidge was screaming, Lance sprinting towards him and yanking him into a tight hug.  


“You’re okay,” he whispered, his voice shaking as he breathed into the fabric of Keith’s hood, pooled around his shoulders.  


“Lance, I-” before he could say anything he was interrupted by Pidge slamming into them, Hunk joining her a second later to lift all three of them into a massive bear hug.  


“It’s good to see you again, Keith,” Allura said as she and Coran approached, her hands folded in front of her.  


“Yes, and in once piece!” Coran added, not even twirling his mustache as he eyed Keith critically.  


Wisely, he shrank away a bit from his scrutiny, lowering his eyes with shame. “I-” he paused and lifted his gaze when he saw Shiro moving, looking crestfallen when the black paladin stopped in front of Lotor.  


“You aren’t going to join in the touching reunion?” The banished prince drawled, smirking at him.  


“You wanted to talk, so talk,” Shiro said, glaring as he crossed his arms.  


“And while he talks to him, I need to have a talk with you,” Lance said, taking Keith’s arm and dragging him out of the room.  


“But what about-?” He tries to turn back over his shoulder, but Lance interrupts him while rapidly shaking his head.  


“A-ba-ba-ba!” He stops him, tugging on his arm, “You’re coming with me, buster!”  


“Should we wait for them to sort out their… disagreement?” Lotor asked breezily once the door closed behind them.  


“No, you’re talking now,” Shiro growled, glaring down at him.

 

 

 

“Lance! Lance!” Keith dug his heels into the ground to stop Lance from dragging him any further, yanking his arm out of his grip. “I think this is far enough!” He snapped, turning away from the current red paladin.  


“Okay, good -” Lance said with a light shrug; the next second Keith was slamming against the wall, Lance pinning him there with his hands fisted in the front of his uniform. “What were you thinking?” He screamed. “Matt told me what you tried to do! Are you insane?”  


Keith scowled and grabbed Lance’s wrists, but didn’t try to pry his hands loose from the front of his uniform. “I was thinking that we needed to get rid of the barrier, and that our weapons weren't hitting it hard enough, voltron was too far away - I had to do something-!" He stopped immediately when Lance squeezed his eyes shut and lowered his head. “Lance...?” He mumbled in confusion, that confusion morphing into horror when a tear dripped down Lance’s cheek, in spite of how tightly his eyes were squeezed shut. He opened his mouth to say something, but he was pushed heavier against the wall when Lance slumped against him, dropping his forehead against his shoulder.  


“Don’t… don’t do that again. Please,” Lance whispered, his voice trembling. “Losing this war doesn’t mean anything if I have to do it without you.”  


“What are you saying?” Keith rasped, letting go of Lance’s wrists to push him away with his hands on his shoulders, forcing him to meet his eyes.  


“I’m saying that I care about you, you jerk, and I don’t want you dead!” He snapped, releasing Keith’s uniform to wipe furiously at his face. His shoulders dropped and he flopped his hands to his sides, weakly mumbling, “I don’t want you dead.” Keith stared up at him with a confused expression for a moment before pressing his lips together in a look of determination. “Keith-?” The other boy’s name barely left his mouth before Keith was surging forward with his eyes squeezed shut, pressing his lips against Lance’s in the briefest of kisses, pulling away immediately with an abashed expression and rosy cheeks.  


“I…” he hesitated, glancing up at Lance and turning redder when he saw the shocked look on Lance’s face, coupled with a faint dust of pink over his cheeks. “I’m sorry, that-that seemed like a good idea -” he tried to pull away, but he was held firmly in place by Lance’s hands grabbing his waist, “we should probably get back -” He was silenced abruptly by Lance ducking his head to kiss him in a nearly identical rushed manner. Keith’s shoulders arched backwards and his eyes grew wide, the rosiness in his cheeks turning into a dark flush that spread all the way to his neck when Lance pulled away.  


They stared at each other, their faces similar shades of red, until Lance cleared his throat and narrowed his eyes in determination. “One more time?”  


“Yeah - yeah, one more -” Keith began to say, grabbing Lance by his shoulders and yanking him closer.

 

 

 

“I think it’s a fair trade,” Lotor said with a shrug, sitting in the chair he had been given at the table as though it were a throne and his hands weren’t restrained in his lap.  


“We’ll discuss this,” Shiro said as Allura opened her mouth, grabbing looks of disbelief from her and the other leaders present. He gestured for her and Coran to follow him, and they congregated on the other side of the room with a few other leaders: Kolivan, Olia, Ozar, and Ryner.  


“We can’t trust him,” Allura declared quickly, glancing over her shoulder, “it must be some form of trick.”  


“I have seen the ship he speaks of - and the fact it could break through the particle barrier around the Galra ship and destroy it so easily…” Ryner was the one who spoke up, although she did look unconvinced.  


“I agree with the princess,” Olia added, her gaze snapping to Allura, “his timing was too good.”  


“He has nothing to gain from helping us,” Ozar tried to contribute, sneering in Lotor’s direction.  


“Except what he’s asking for - asylum from his father,” Coran pointed out.  


“And he has a point - his ship in exchange for protection? It seems like a fair trade,” Shiro added.  


“Where will we protect him though?” Ryner asked, going on to say, “We’ve intercepted multiple Galra transmissions - Zarkon is putting capturing him above all other priorities. Even higher than defeating Voltron or reclaiming the parts of the empire that we have taken back. It will be only a matter of time before they find out where he is, and then you will have Zarkon himself on wherever he’s being kept.” There was a contemplative silence before she carefully added, “He will have to be hidden…” while her gaze settled on Kolivan.  


Kolivan appeared contemplative before saying, “We have a handful of safehouses where he can be kept. It would be wise strategy to never keep him in one place for very long.”  


“But how long is he going to be content with that before he tries something?” Ozar demanded with a heavy scowl.  


On the opposite side of the room and closer to the door, Pidge and Hunk were huddled with Matt.  


“Do you think Lance is done yelling at Keith yet?” Pidge was the first one to ask, breaking her glare away from Lotor to shift her gaze to Hunk.  


“I doubt it - he was pretty upset,” Hunk responded, glancing at the door with an apprehensive look.  


“I can’t blame him. If someone I cared about that way pulled a stunt like that -” Matt began to say, but he was interrupted by Hunk.  


“-Whoa, whoa, whoa! What do you mean ‘that way’?” Hunk demanded, eyeing Matt incredulously.  


“Ugh, thank goodness it’s not just me!” Pidge exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air. “Hunk, don’t tell me you really haven’t noticed Lance pretty much tugging on Keith’s pigtails since day one?” She smirked, waggling her eyebrows in a way that made Hunk’s cheeks turn red.  


“Pidge, Lance is my best friend, of course I’ve noticed,” he said disapprovingly while crossing his arms. “I just didn’t think anyone else had,” he tacked on under his breath.  


“Puh-lease,” Matt scoffed with a roll of his eyes, “the only people who wouldn’t have noticed are the people who wouldn’t want to.”  


“So, do you think they’re still being dumb?” Pidge asked, turning her gaze towards the figures of leadership still discussing Lotor’s fate on the opposite side of the room; Coran had separated from the group to approach the three of them, the voices of the leaders growing more heated as Ozar, Olia, and Allura began to argue loudly with Shiro, Kolivan, and Ryner.  


“Are Keith and Lance still out?” He asked, sounding surprised. “I didn’t think that Lance would take this long to chastise Keith for his recklessness!”  


“It’s Lance,” Pidge deadpanned.  


“Well, wherever they are, I think that one of you should go find them. I think the, er… negotiations are reaching a stalemate,” Coran suggested, wincing at a particularly loud declaration of “that thinking will get you killed!” from Ozar.  


“I’ll go find them,” Hunk volunteered, turning around and exiting the room with a casual wave over his shoulder.  


Still sitting at the table, with no less than four rebel guns aimed at his head and two Blades with their swords levelled at his neck, Lotor watched Hunk leave with a smirk. 

 

 

 

“Man, where even are those guys?” Hunk mumbled to himself as he walked at a casual pace down the hall. “Lance? Keith?” He called out as he turned a corner, and then promptly froze in his tracks as his jaw dropped. His gaze zoomed in on Keith and Lance in a very… heated embrace.  


Lance had Keith pinned to the wall with his arms wrapped tightly around his waist, Keith’s arms around his shoulders with one hand buried his hair. He let out a loud noise of shock and horror, startling the two of them into breaking apart to turn and stare at him in surprise.  


“Um, hi! Hunk!” Keith seemed to recover first, nudging Lance away and standing ramrod straight as his cheeks turned red. Hunk continued to stare at them, his expression one of slackjawed horror.  


Lance was the second to recover, slinging his arm around Keith’s shoulders and leaning against him in a way that made his cheeks turn an even darker shade of red. “Man, what’s your deal? Have you never seen a couple of space-boyfriends kissing before?” He asked breezily.  


Hunk remained mortified, and Keith snapped out of his embarrassment to look at Lance in confusion, repeating, “space-boyfriends?” in disbelief.  


“Yeah, ‘cause we’re boyfriends, and we’re in space,” Lance said, waving his hand that wasn’t wrapped over Keith’s shoulder in the air casually. There was a beat of silence before he began to pull away, his smile fading as he said, “Unless - you don’t want to, I shouldn’t be -”  


“No, no, that’s not it!” Keith shook his head rapidly, his eyes wide with shock and fear while grabbing Lance’s hand on his shoulder before he could move his arm. “I just - what about when we’re not in space?”  


“Um -?” Lance looked confused, sharing a look with Hunk as his friend finally snapped out of his shock to watch them like they were a very confusing-yet-engaging soap opera. “What are you talking about?”  


“I mean, what about whenever we’re on a planet, and not in space?” He asked, looking and sounding distraught as he rambled, “Like, if we go to Olkarian, do we suddenly become Olkarian-boyfriends?”  


“Keith -”  


“I don’t understand why we can’t just be regular boyfriends!” He exclaimed, looking and sounding as disheveled as he must have felt. He looked up to meet Lance’s eyes and faltered when he saw Lance gazing at him with stars in his eyes. “Um… Or I’m just being stupid -”  


“No, mullet - Keith - I agree with you completely,” Lance said firmly, putting his hands on his shoulders. “You have never been more right - regular boyfriends it is!” He spun around and yanked Keith against his side, using his free arm to make a grand waving gesture in front of them.  


“That’s actually kind of sickeningly adorable,” Hunk said, smiling fondly at them. “Now, that being said - you guys should come back to the meeting.”  


“Ugh, do we have to?” Lance whined, slumping dramatically over Keith’s shoulders. He looked surprised when Keith chuckled, pink dusting his cheeks when Keith smiled fondly at him.  


“C’mon, hotshot, Hunk’s right,” he said, stepping out of Lance’s reach, in spite of his whining. The nickname made him perk up, trotting after him as his lips curled into a cheshire grin.  


“Hotshot?” He repeated, his grin turning smarmy.  


“I like it better than sharpshooter,” he said breezily, the redness of his cheeks betraying his casual tone; Hunk and Lance both stopped dead in their tracks, gaping after him.  


“Did Keith just flirt with you?” Hunk declared disbelievingly.  


“Boyfriends~!” Lance sang before skipping ahead, swiping Keith’s hand into his to lace their fingers together as they walked. 

 

 

 

The doors to the meeting hall slid open to the sound of yelling, the three paladins stopping in their tracks when their eyes fell on the scene before them: Allura and Shiro, shouting at each other.  


“You would even suggest that we allow him to stay in the castle?” Allura yelled in his face, gesturing angrily at Lotor.  


“I’m suggesting that we should keep him here because it’s a better option than leaving him on a coalition planet!” Shiro snapped back.  


“There is no point in you fighting each other -” Ryner tried to step in, but she gasped softly and looked genuinely offended when Shiro held up his hand to silence her.  


“What’s going on?” Lance asked Pidge as he stepped forward.  


“Lotor has offered his ship in exchange for asylum,” Coran explained, “and the princess is having none of it. But Shiro is insisting that we should agree, and there’s an equal divide between the other leaders.”  


“And Shiro has offended every one of them by trying to defend Lotor,” Pidge declared dryly.  


“Shiro? Offending anyone?” Hunk was the one who sounded disbelieving. In the center of the room, Allura and Shiro continued to yell at each other with the other leaders attempting to step forward and shout in equal measure to weigh in.  


Keith watched Shiro yelling over everyone and started to shake, flinching back at the loud voices; his squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his fists at his sides as the yelling continued. He snapped out of it with a jump of surprise when a sharp, high-pitched noise pierced the air and silenced the arguing. Everyone turned and stared in shock as Lance removed his fingers from his mouth, not even looking at Keith as he wiped his fingers on his hood.  


“Alright, I’m calling a Voltron family meeting!” He called out, clapping his hands once. “If you have not lived in this castle for the past few months or have never held the title of paladin of Voltron, please escort yourself into the main entry hall!” He stepped aside and gestured towards the doors. He scowled when everyone only stared at him in surprise. He huffed and rolled his eyes, “Alright, fine -  


“Ryner,” he gestured at the leader of the Olkari, “return to the outside fleet and proceed to do maintenance of all of the damaged ships.” Ryner nodded, her mouth tilting in a small smile as she left, the two Olkari who had accompanied her at her sides.  


“Captain Olia, you should go check on your surviving soldiers while the Olkari do maintenance on the ships,” Lance continued, gesturing at the rebel leader when he addressed her, “they’re lucky to be alive, but someone needs to make sure they’re okay-okay.” She nodded and left, at which point Lance turned his attention to Ozar and said, “Lieutenant, you should establish contact with our ground troops.”  


Ozar looked impressed, nodding at Lance as he said, “Understood.”  


After he left to follow Olia, Lance turned his attention to Kolivan. “Kolivan-” his voice was sharper when he pointed at the leader of the Blades and looked at the banished prince, “take all of the Blade members present in the castle and escort Prince L’Oreal to the main entry hall where you can keep an eye on him until we’re done.”  


“Lance, I don’t think -” Shiro began to say, but he stopped when Lance snapped his attention to him quickly, the glare on his face silencing him.  


“Don’t test me, Shiro.”  


“Such open hostility,” Lotor said as he was yanked unceremoniously to his feet, “this much discord between paladins has me concerned.”  


“You have no right to be concerned with things that are none of your business,” Allura snapped at him, her scowl deepening when he merely smirked at her.  


He was about to be escorted out of the room, flanked by two Blades, when Lance stopped them with a firm, “Wait.” His boots clicked in the silent room, everyone gaping when he stopped in front of Lotor and stuck his hand out. “Thank you,” he said firmly.  


Lotor stared at his offered hand in shock before lifting his gaze to meet Lance’s. “What?”  


“I’m enough of a man to admit that you saved our butts,” Lance explained, his expression stony, “and if it weren’t for your timing, Keith would be dead. So, thank you.”  


Lotor tilted his head to the side as he eyed Lance appraisingly, before his lips curled in a knowing smirk and he took Lance’s hand, in spite of his wrists still being shackled together. “It was my pleasure.”  


“I don’t buy that, but whatever,” Lance scoffed as he stepped aside, gesturing for Kolivan and the other Blades to escort him out of the room. Once they were all gone and it was just the rest of the team gaping at Lance in surprise, he turned his gaze to Keith with a fond smile and put his hand on his shoulder, sliding it up so he was cradling Keith’s neck. “Are you okay?” He asked quietly, “You looked like things were getting a bit overwhelming for a second. “  


“I -” Keith’s cheeks turned pink and he averted his eyes, mumbling a shy, “yeah, I’m fine.”  


They spent a second too long smiling at each other before Pidge slid into view, a knowing smirk on her face. “So, what do we have here?” She drawled, an edge of glee to her voice.  


“Lance and Keith are dating now,” Hunk piped up before either of the boys had a chance to say anything.  


“Hunk!” They both yelped in objection, and he shrank back.  


“What? I figured you were going to tell them, anyways!” He defended himself.  


“I mean, yeah, but I wanted to be the one to tell everyone,” Lance pouted; Keith scowled when Lance draped himself across his shoulders like a limp noodle.  


“I’m sorry, but… ‘dating’?” Allura said, looking confused.  


“It’s like courtship, princess,” Shiro declared, his expression serious.  


“Courtship?” Coran said, tilting his head to the side as he turned his gaze to Keith and Lance, saying, “Wait, were we supposed to think you _weren’t_ romantically involved?”  


“I hope the two of you know what you’re doing - we’re in the middle of a war, are you sure the two of you want to risk -” Shiro began to lecture, but he stopped and stared in shock when Lance held up his hand to silence him. “Did you just -?”  


“What’s his deal, Allura?” Lance cut Shiro off while turning his gaze to the princess.  


After a moment of tense silence, she explained, “It’s as Pidge explained - Lotor wants us to provide him protection from his father, and in exchange he’s offering us his ship.”  


“It sounds like a good deal, except for the fact that no one trusts Lotor as far as they can throw him,” Pidge chipped in. “Well -” she glanced at Allura and Coran and added as a side note, “-none of us humans, anyway.”  


“And with good reason!” Coran added, twirling his mustache thoughtfully, “That Lotor is wilier than a Melthan belroot!”  


“I’m going to pretend I know what that means,” Lance deadpanned. “So, everyone thinks it’s a bad idea to take him up on his offer because…?”  


“We don’t know where we would put him,” Allura huffs, crossing her arms with a scowl. “Shiro is suggesting we keep him in the castle so we won’t risk any of the coalition planets or Marmora safehouses.” She glared at Shiro out of the corner of her eye and said, “I disagree.”  


“Kolivan made a good suggestion of moving him around safehouses, never keeping him in one place for too long,” Matt said, stroking his chin thoughtfully, “that also gives the added bonus of never letting him get too comfortable…”  


“All the same, I’d like to keep him somewhere that we can keep an eye on him,” Shiro said firmly.  


“The Blade of Marmora is more than capable of keeping close watch on him,” Keith said, taking a step forward, “trust me, I’ve been working with them for weeks - I think they might be even more well-equipped to monitor him than we are.”  


“Perfect! So, now that that’s settled, we get to determine what we’re going to do with the fancy meteorite-ship!” Lance declared cheerfully with a clap of his hands.  


“No,” Shiro interrupted him before he could continue, and Lance scowled. “We need to hash out these details first.”  


“We have enough details!” He insisted, throwing his hands up in frustration.  


“Fine, Lance, if you’re satisfied with what we know, then how do you suggest we move forward?” Shiro snapped at him, making everyone stare at him in shock.  


“I think it’s obvious.” He cocked one hip out and began to wave his hand in the air as he talked, “We use Lotor’s ship as backup with Voltron. Six paladins means one of us should be able to fly it.”  


“That’s an excellent idea, Lance!” Allura declared while clasping her hands in front of her chest, making Lance grin. “But, who would pilot it?”  


“Again, something equally obvious,” Lance continued with a smug grin, “we need a pilot who knows what they’re doing," he began pacing, waving his hands in wide, expressive gestures as he spoke, "someone with years of experience, who can fly a ship completely solo and be trusted to make good decisions in something that powerful on the fly.” Everyone turned to look at Keith, who began to shift awkwardly under everyone’s stares. Then, to everyone’s surprise, Lance whipped his arm out and said, “I nominate Shiro,” in a casual voice while gesturing at him.  


“Are you serious? Why not Keith?” Shiro was the first one to speak up, shifting his gaze to Keith, who had began to mess with the sleeves of his uniform.  


“I actually agree with Lance,” Pidge spoke up, her glasses reflecting light as she mused, “Shiro is, hands down, the best pilot of all of us, with years of experience.”  


“Exactly! Which means, if Shiro pilots the ship, then we can have my _boyfriend_ -” he paused to yank Keith against his side and rub his cheek against the top of his head, “-back in the black lion!”  


“You would really trust Keith in the black lion after the stunt he pulled today?” Shiro demanded, making everyone gasp and stare at him in shock. “What?”  


“How can you say that?” Hunk was the first one to speak up, his voice quiet and hurt on Keith’s behalf; the boy in question was flushed in shame, hanging his head with his eyes fixed on the floor.  


“Well, there’s one thing I can tell you for certain,” Lance said, his voice ice cold as he said, “either Keith gets to be back in the black lion, or you’d better hope that the red lion will accept Matt as its new paladin.” Everyone gasped and stared at him in shock.  


“What are you talking about?” Allura demanded.  


“Lance, I can pilot Lotor’s ship,” Keith tried to said, putting his hand on Lance’s arm.  


“It has nothing to do with who’s piloting Lotor’s ship, or whether or not you’re in the black lion!” Lance snapped, shaking Keith’s hand off of his arm. “Shiro keeps talking about the stunt that you pulled, but nobody’s talking about his!”  


“Excuse me? My stunt?” Shiro’s voice and eyebrows shot up in disbelief.  


“Yes, you’re stunt! What happened on Naxcela!” He barely elaborated with a wave of his arm.  


“I think you’re going to have to be more specific, buddy,” Hunk was the one who spoke up after a moment of confused silence on everyone’s part. Lance huffed and rolled his eyes before raising his arm to tap a few buttons on his armguard, the setup nearly identical to what Pidge had on hers. A moment later a sound bite echoed in the room:  


_“We should get out of here.”  
_

_“No. Let’s stick around and see what these things are.”  
_

There was a short moment of silence immediately afterwards, the air growing thick with tension as everyone looked back and forth between Shiro and Lance.  


“You didn’t even hesitate to shoot me down,” Lance said, his voice shaking, “and we almost died. If Allura hadn’t been with us, we would all be dead because of your call.”  


“How was I supposed to know what was going to happen? We couldn’t have known what those things were otherwise!” Shiro objected.  


“Yeah, except for the fact that we could have figured it out from outside of the gravitational field! Are you forgetting that between Pidge and Hunk we have about seventy-billion different scanners that read that kind of thing?” Lance threw his hands up in frustration.  


“Well, Hunk has helped me build and equip the green lion with about three separate atmospheric scanners to test gravitational strength as well as airborne chemicals in foreign atmospheres -” Pidge began to say while stroking her chin, stopping when everyone fixed her with pointed stares. “In a nutshell, Lance has a point.” The current red paladin turned to fix Shiro with a pointed stare while gesturing at Pidge with both hands.  


“So, you’re questioning my leadership,” Shiro said, his voice tense.  


“Yep,” Lance hummed, making everyone stare at him in disbelief.  


“Lance, think about what you’re saying -” Keith said quietly, putting his hand on Lance’s shoulder.  


“I’ve been thinking about it plenty, and the thing that keeps coming to mind is that I’ve been questioning a lot more things since you came back, besides your leadership,” Lance said to Shiro. Everyone gasped, wearing expressions varying from disbelief (Matt and Pidge), surprise (Allura and Coran), and fear (Hunk and Keith).  


“What are you saying, Lance?” Shiro growled, his expression stormy.  


“I’m saying the Galra did something to you, man!” Lance yelled, throwing his hands up in the air again.  


“Lance, how can you be so sure?” Allura was the one to ask, her previous frustration with Shiro fading to concern.  


“Keith almost died today,” Lance snapped, gesturing at Keith beside him; he hung his head when everyone’s attention was on him. “Keith almost killed himself - and Shiro hasn’t said a word to him since he walked in.”  


The room went so silent you could have heard a pin drop as everyone turned and stared at Shiro in silence.  


“Shiro?” Matt was the one who spoke up softly; the current black paladin was glaring at the floor, his whole body tense.  


Lance sounded sad, his gaze fixed on Shiro, as he repeated once more, “The Galra did something to you.” He took a deep breath and said in a rush, “And until we know what, I don’t think you should be piloting one of the lions - especially one as important as the black lion.”  


Shiro’s gaze snapped back to Lance, the extent to which he was holding back his anger visible as he gritted out, “You are way out of line - remember who you’re talking to.”  


“I know who I’m talking to - the guy who almost got us killed, and who’s ignoring Keith!” Lance yelled, taking a step towards Shiro.  


“Both of you, stop it! This kind of conflict will make it impossible for us to form Voltron again!” Allura snapped, looking between the two of them.  


“It’s too late for that, princess,” Lance said, his glare fixed on Shiro, “as long as Shiro’s in the black lion, I won’t be piloting Red or Blue.” The statement was so outrageous it had everyone objecting loudly.  


“Lance, are you crazy-?”  


“Buddy, that’s insane -!”  


“-I’m a terrible pilot, I can’t fly one of the lions -!”  


“-My boy, you aren’t serious -?”  


“-The red lion chose you -!”  


“-Lance, you love being a paladin -!”  


It was Keith’s objection that Lance really responded to, turning and meeting his eyes with such an intense stare that it made everyone go quiet. The two boys stared at each other, Keith actually looking scared as Lance raised his hand to cup the side of his neck, his thumb tracing his jaw.  


“It’s about more than being a paladin,” he finally said, raising his head to glare at Shiro, “it’s about being respected.”  


“Lance, you’re being stupid!” Shiro tried to say, but he went silent when Matt stepped forward and pressed his hand to his chest.  


“Alright, I officially agree with Lance,” he said, glaring at Shiro, “the Shiro that I knew would have thrown himself out of the airlock before calling one of his teammates ‘stupid’.”  


“Matt’s right,” Pidge said, crossing her arms to glare at Shiro with her brother and Lance.  


“The Shiro that you knew hadn’t been captured and experimented on by the Galra - twice,” Shiro responded, scowling at him.  


“Which… makes Lance’s point even more valid,” Hunk said carefully, shrinking back when Shiro’s scowl fixated on him, “like, the point you just made proved Lance’s.”  


Shiro’s scowl faded as he looked over the group and realized that they were all looking at him with similar expressions of anger or worry. “So, what do you suggest we do?”  


“You take Lotor’s ship, Keith gets the Black lion, and in the meantime we send Lotor with the Blade of Marmora,” Lance ticked off on his fingers. “I can’t think of any other problems.”  


“His generals.” They all turned to look at Keith, who was staring contemplatively at the floor. He lifted his head and looked over everyone before he said, “Where were his generals?” There was a beat of silence as they all looked at each other again, a sense of unease settling over the group. 

 

 

 

“He wouldn’t be that desperate… would he?” Zethrid grumbled, staring through the windows of the ship and into the darkness of space.  


“He would be,” Acxa declared, closing her eyes.  


“So… What do we do? Do we rescue him, only to hand him over to the Galra?” Ezor asked.  


“No,” Acxa interrupted, “there’s no guarantee that handing him over will even pardon us.”  


“So, what do we do?” Zethrid repeated Ezor’s question.  


“If the Paladins of Voltron are willing to offer Prince Lotor asylum, then…” she drifted off reluctantly.  


“Don’t even finish that sentence, Ezor,” Zethrid hissed.  


“She has a point, Zethrid,” Acxa murmured, opening her eyes to fix Zethrid with an intense stare.  


“How do you know if they’ll even help us?” She demanded.  


Acxa closed her eyes for a moment, her memories flashing to a young man with purple eyes; first, helping her out of her crashed ship in the weblum, and then his own gaze sparking with recognition when they fought.  


“They will,” she said after a moment of contemplation.

**Author's Note:**

> I guarantee you that this is too short to make a "full' episode, so fill in those blanks however you want. All I want is for Klance to be made canon and Lance to call (clone!)Shiro on his BS.
> 
> btw, i have a [tumblr](https://fandomtrashpanda.tumblr.com/)


End file.
